In the early morning, at the training grounds attached to Astra’s mansion.

Just like something I saw in a comic, I was doing push-ups while balancing on one finger, silently counting in my head.

One million twenty-one, one million twenty-two.

Of course, I hadn’t actually done one million twenty-two of them.

Isn’t there some kind of unspoken rule that when you’re doing push-ups, you should start counting from there?

Still, after filling in a respectable number, I got up and downed a glass of water.

Lately, getting up early every morning and training like this had become my routine.

I had a rough idea from the academy’s training, but doing exercise alone made me realize just how extraordinary my physical abilities were.

I could do push-ups on one finger as easily as if I were doing morning exercises.

Though I probably hadn’t measured it accurately, I’d say I could easily handle lifting around 500 kg in total.

This strength came from these delicate arms.

If the guys at the gym who were hard at training saw this, they would surely faint in disbelief.

For them, this would be pure fantasy.

Anyway, I had one problematic point in this whole scenario.

I wanted to get stronger, but having never lived in a body like this, I really didn’t have a clue how to train effectively on my own.

I could manage doing 100 push-ups, sit-ups, squats, and even running 10 km without too much stress on my body—but I couldn’t risk going bald for it!

And I couldn’t just spend all day doing gratitude shots without knowing if they’d do any good…

If I had known it would turn out like this, I should have asked Teacher Eve for some good methods when I met her.

Just as I was lost in thought, my phone suddenly buzzed in the distance.

Since I had only a few registered numbers, I checked the call and, as expected, it was from someone who occupied most of my call history.

[Good morning, Scarlet. I hope I’m not calling you too early?]

“It’s fine, Mei. I was just up early and in the middle of my workout.”

I responded with a smile to Mei’s question coming from the other end of the line.

Fortunately, Mei, who had been addicted to demonic energy, had regained her health without major issues thanks to swift actions taken.

It had been a while since we had seen each other due to the academy being temporarily closed, but we had been in frequent contact.

By the way, she usually called me around dinner time—so why was she getting in touch so early today?

As if reading my mind, Mei dove straight into the main point before I could even ask.

[You know, Scarlet. Are you free today? Senior Leonor is inviting us to have a meal together to catch up.]

This was perfect timing.

I thought it would be a great opportunity to meet with the cooking club members, and I could get some training advice as well, so I asked Mei.

“I’m available any time. Where should we meet?”

[Well, she asked us to come to her house.]

*

Since we decided to meet and head to Leonor’s house together, I went to the agreed-upon spot and spotted a familiar face in the distance, waiting earlier than scheduled.

In neat casual clothes, Mei was adjusting her glasses and smiled at me as I approached.

“It’s been a while. How have you been?”

“I’ve been perfectly fine. Honestly, I’m just relieved to see you’re healthy. I was pretty worried.”

“I told you several times over the phone that I was okay. You worry too much. Honestly, I was more worried about you. When I woke up, I heard the big fuss about that incident, and I thought maybe you had hurt yourself badly again.”

I scratched my head and smiled awkwardly at her pointed comment.

Given that she had seen me lose an arm, it was understandable.

Seeing my reaction, Mei chuckled and began walking.

“Let’s head to the senior’s house. We can talk more there.”

I nodded and quietly followed her.

“… Is this the place?”

“Yep, according to the address the senior gave us, this should be it.”

I lifted my gaze to the house before me.

It looked like something a young noblewoman would live in, an elegant Eastern-style residence.

But the actual resident was a bronzed blonde…

That irony made me chuckle a little.

Honestly, in the past, I might have been nervous about visiting such a luxurious house, but since I currently shared a place in Sylvia’s grand mansion, I had no trouble pressing the doorbell.

After waiting a moment, I heard fast footsteps from beyond the door, and it swung open.

“Welcome! Come on in, everyone.”

And upon seeing Leonor through the door, I involuntarily swallowed hard.

Tank top and dolphin shorts.

And it seemed to highlight her athletic figure even more.

While it was comfortable for her to be dressed like that at home, having Leonor in such attire left me unsure where to look.

Even Mei, another female, turned her head and cleared her throat awkwardly.

“What are you doing just standing there? Hurry up before the food gets cold.”

“E-Excuse us.”

As we stood frozen in astonishment at the astonishing sight, we heard Leonor urging us in with a wave of her hand.

Her words broke us from our stupor, and we hurriedly followed her inside, only to be greeted by a stunning sight that made me exclaim wow unconsciously.

“Whoa… Wow…”

Leonor’s outfit was quite shocking, but the view before me was even more overwhelming.

Mei looked equally astonished, her expression filled with surprise.

“Did you make all of this, Senior?”

“Hehe, I put in some effort since you both were coming over. What do you think?”

It’s incredible…

Feeling full of gratitude, I raised my thumb toward Leonor.

The table was filled with various dishes, making it impossible to guess how many hours she’d spent preparing everything.

Of course, the meals from Sylvia’s mansion were fantastic, but they had a certain luxurious feel that was a bit overbearing.

But the dishes prepared by Leonor gave off a home-cooked vibe, with meals that exuded homey warmth, like galbijjim that took time and skill to perfect.

I gulped as I looked at Leonor and asked.

“Uh… Senior, I’m grateful, but didn’t you spend too much time on this? I feel like you went through a lot of trouble just for us…”

“Ahah, if you keep being so humble, at least wipe your mouth first before saying that. I did it because I wanted to, so don’t worry too much. Besides… well, there’s something I want to tell you both.”

Leonor hesitated slightly but continued with a somewhat sad smile.

“That is, once the academy reopens, the cooking club will probably be disbanded.”

“What? No way…!”

At her words, Mei gasped in shock.

I was momentarily taken aback, but I soon thought that it was plausible, so I nodded sadly.

Given what had happened, it wouldn’t be strange for the club to vanish…

Leonor spoke with a troubled expression.

“It was originally established with the permission of Chef James to use the kitchen… but now that he’s gone, it makes sense. Moreover, even if a new chef comes in, they plan to restrict access to the kitchen for security reasons. Even if the culinary club persists, I doubt we can enjoy cooking there like before…”

I could relate to her feelings, having had nightmares about that day myself.

Having spent a long time with James, she probably felt it even more than I did.

After Leonor spoke, she fell silent for a moment, and Mei murmured with a downcast expression.

“So… is the cooking club really over? Although I didn’t see it very much, I still enjoyed our cooking sessions together…”

“…That’s really disappointing.”

Although I was mostly there to eat, I had planned to eventually treat them to my special stir-fried mung bean sprouts. I never expected something like this would happen…

Seeing our disappointed faces, Leonor, who had been wearing a troubled expression, spoke to us.

“I said I had something to say, right? You need to hear it until the end.”

As we tilted our heads in confusion, Leonor continued.

“…You know, I don’t know you two for very long, but I’ve really liked you. Thinking back, the times I’ve had the most fun recently were when we were doing activities in the cooking club. So I have a favor to ask…”

Leonor, slightly blushing, said this to us.

“If you’re okay with it, would you like to meet up sometimes for meals, even if it’s not related to the cooking club? I really tried hard in the kitchen today to ask you this… What do you think?”

Here was this cute rogue asking in what made so much sense!

While I was thinking about that, Mei vigorously nodded her head and shouted.

“I… I’m in! Totally on board! Although I’m not great at socializing, I always thought it would be nice to become closer with you, Senior…”

Mei answered, looking at me with an expression full of longing.

There’s no need to be so anxious.

After all, I felt that I owed them something deep down, so I had no reason to reject.

Thinking that way, I looked at Leonor and said.

“I’d love it too. I’d like to keep a good relationship with you, Senior.”

“Ah… I’m so relieved…”

Leonor murmured, visibly relieved, and smiled with her eyes slightly glistening.

Seeing how much this mattered to her, I couldn’t help but smile and say.

“Senior, are you crying or something?”

“Crying? Who’s crying! I’m not crying, so stop messing around and hurry up and eat!”

“Yes, yes, of course.”

“I’m not crying!”

“Ahahaha.”

Throughout the meal, laughter never ceased.

It was a time when I could momentarily forget my worries and anxieties.

*

After finishing the meal, ignoring Leonor’s insistence that guests should remain calm, I brought up my question about how I could become stronger while everyone helped with the dishes.

Mei looked at me with a wounded gaze and mumbled.

“Scarlet, that’s a very painful question to ask someone weaker than you…”

“No, I genuinely wanted to know what kind of training I should do to become stronger…”

I panicked at her response and responded, only for Leonor, who had been listening, to chuckle and say.

“To be honest, if we knew that, we would both be stronger, right? I’m relatively strong among my peers, but when I train alone, there are many times when I have no idea what to do.”

“Is that so…”

Becoming stronger isn’t an easy feat, it seems…

When I spoke with a disappointed expression, Leonor smiled and said.

“Well, I don’t know much about it, but there happens to be an expert at home today, so just wait a moment.”

Leonor said this and then called out loudly to someone.

“Dad!!! Come out for a second!”

“…What is it? I told you not to come out since your friends were here…”

As Leonor’s yell echoed, a slightly sulky voice responded from nearby.

There stood a man with the same blonde hair and brown skin as Leonor, almost appearing as if he materialized with the sound.

Realizing who Leonor’s ally was, I let out a nervous chuckle.

At this moment, he was undoubtedly one of the top five most powerful individuals in this world’s rankings, a hero who was known as “The One Who Follows the Sound” and Leonor Lionyl’s father—Leon Lionyl.

He stood there with the expression of a hurt father.